Odds Are
by thisbloodycat
Summary: Albus plays wicked games, Scorpius can't escape, and Lily Potter quite possibly wins all the bets.


This was written for hprarefest 2015, which is a wonderful fest that I hope will always be there. I chose to write for prompt #77, mostly because I am a horribly biased person and it had been prompted by huldrejenta. LOL. No, but listen, the thing is, she's a fabulous writer, okay? And I've been reading her stories for the longest time, so when I saw this chance to give something back, I thought it'd be nice to grab it and just... fly with it? :)

Thank you, iwao, for beta-reading this for me, and being so nice about it, and not laughing at me when I mutilated a song for my summary. And putting up with my weird moods and my even weirder jokes - well, it happens, some days? No, but really, you were amazing, and thank you so much for reading through this for me

Contains: Underage drinking, truth or dare, Slytherins being Slytherins and a couple of idiots in love.

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 **Odds Are . . .**

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"Truth or dare?" Lily smiled sweetly at him, her brown eyes glinting with mischief.

Scorpius swallowed. In the aftermath of their great fight over who got to sit where, he was absolutely certain of three things and three things only.

One: he was a Malfoy, and should therefore conduct himself with poise – he might have had a bit of a slip earlier, when he'd cursed Lily off his favourite sofa.

Two: his father was right; the Potters were all mad as hatters and it was best to avoid them at all costs. Seeking their friendship came with no reward. (Yes, even that one, the one Scorpius had had a huge crush on ever since he'd first set eyes on him. That one was crazy as a loon as well, even if he also happened to be maddeningly hot.)

And of course, three: it was never a good idea to get on Lily Potter's bad side. He'd known that before he'd turned Lily's feet green for stealing his sofa, but well, sometimes these things just happened on impulse. That's what he'd been telling himself, anyway.

"Scorpius? It's for today, you know," Lily pointed out. "Truth or dare?"

Scorpius contemplated his options as he lowered his glass – had his drink been spiked with Veritaserum while he'd been in the loo? It did taste a bit funny. And would his housemates tell him if it'd been, or would they just wait quietly, hoping to catch him by surprise? (Definitely, definitely wait. They probably got off on humiliating Malfoys, these days.)

"Dare," he said, and hoped for the best.

As it turned out, his best was severely lacking, and Lily Potter – like most of Slytherin house – seemed to have a bit of a thing for revenge.

: :

: :

"Malfoy?" Albus yelled, hovering on his broom only a foot off the ground. "Are you spying on us or something? Because that's not likely to help you win the game against Gryffindor."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I'm not spying on you."

He could still hear Lily's words in his head. "I dare you to go find my brother," she'd said, "and kiss him. In the mouth." How could she possibly have known? Scorpius had never told anyone about this . . . this mad infatuation thing he had going for Albus. At least, he didn't think he had – he was a Malfoy after all, poise and all of that.

"Right," Albus said. "Well, what __are__ you doing then?"

"Just . . . taking a walk."

"Really now?" Albus flew closer, seeming far from convinced. "Because you've been standing in the exact same spot for the past ten minutes, glancing morosely from side to side. And anyway –" his eyes narrowed as he stared over Scorpius' shoulder and into the distance, "– why on earth are your housemates hiding behind a stand?"

"They're just . . . they're waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

 _ _For me to kiss you__ , Scorpius thought; instead, he clenched his fists and said nothing – but Merlin, he hated it when his hands got sweaty. Almost as much as he hated it when he couldn't thing straight.

"Waiting for what, Malfoy?" Albus veered to the side, squinting at the Slytherin stand. "Is that my sister giggling, of all things?"

"Er. I'm going to need you to get off the broom now."

"What for?" Albus asked, but dutifully landed next to Scorpius.

That was it then. Now all Scorpius had to do was kiss him. __As if it were that easy, Scorpius, dear,__ his mind quipped, but for once, Scorpius simply silenced it and lurched forwards, not stopping until he felt Albus' lips against his – dry, soft, moving slowly against his own.

Scorpius pulled back. There, he'd done it.

Albus just blinked at him, looking dazed, and Scorpius wondered for a moment if Albus was going to tell him he was terrible at this whole kissing business – it wasn't exactly his first kiss, but well . . . close enough, he guessed.

When Albus opened his mouth to speak, Scorpius turned around and ran all the way back to the Slytherin dungeons. Better safe than sorry, he thought.

: :

: :

Albus dropped down next to him as he was sitting by the lake. "So what was that about?" he asked. "Yesterday, when you came to the pitch and . . ."

"Your sister dared me to kiss you," Scorpius said. He didn't really want to hear the rest of Albus' sentence. "We were playing truth or dare."

"Oh." There was no better way to describe how Albus looked than severely disappointed.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure she was just trying to humiliate me. We had a bit of a fight and –"

"Actually . . ." Albus paused, pulling out a handful of grass from the ground. He stared at it before letting fly free into the wind. "I really don't think it was you she was trying to humiliate."

"What do you mean?"

"I think she was trying – in her own twisted way . . ." Albus took a deep breath. "Well, I suspect she was trying to help me," he said quickly.

"Help you?"

"Yeah." Albus smiled. He shifted a bit closer to Scorpius, looking down at his shoes. "I've had a crush on you for ages now, you know?" he said, shrugging. "And she always . . . she makes fun of me. I'm sure that's why she thought it'd be funny."

"Oh. I thought . . ." Scorpius swallowed. All these years, he'd always thought he was alone in this. Albus had dated so many people and meanwhile he'd been just . . . just waiting – for Albus to notice him, for the right time to come. He guessed, if anything, this was the right time. "Me too. I mean, the crush thing. On you."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Really now," Albus said. "Say," he grinned, "want to give them a show?"

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FIN

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Thank you for reading! :)


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